Estonian schools teach kids to code from 1. grade

I’ve now learned, that Estonia is launching the education program ProgeTiiger (english: programming tiger), with the goal to turn teach 100% of all students at public schools to code. This starts in first grade, when the children are 7-8 years old. Teachers are getting trained at the new skills and the private sector, who is extremely happy about the initiative, is highly involved.

As for now, its only a pilot project with a handful of schools, but later all schools can become a part of the program. The plan is for every public school in the country to join the project.

But why Estonia?! Ain’t that just a small insignificant Baltic country full of corruption and vodka? Its even one of the poorest nations of Europe, with a gross domestic product per capita is just €13,194 ($16,500), half that of nearby Sweden (€27,039). According to The Wall Street Journal, Estonia produces more start-ups per head, than any other country in Europe. They even had four out of 20 finalist in the SeedCamp, entrepreneur-mentoring program, including the winner GrabCAD, a social network for engineers which has 10% of the world’s mechanical engineers registered.

Poor Estonian guy. But not for long. Its the fastest growing economy in Europe!

The Estonian public system is digitalized to the bone. They have e-health, e-voting and digital signature. And then there is Skype. Though it was founded by a swede and a dane, it was built by Estonians.

Unfortunately, the press release says nothing about HOW they intend to do this. Since coding is a complex process, it’s not just a walk in the park for 7 year old kids to understand.